Cum. Total Sales
How much of the day's revenue is in by this hour.
What it means
Cum. Total Sales is a running total: the Total SalesTotal SalesYour true top line and the anchor for every efficiency metric. for the hour on the row plus every hour before it, in your store's currency. Total Sales is Shopify's net figure — gross sales plus shipping and tax, less discounts and refunds — so money you will never keep is inside this line. It lives on the Hour tab, so the rows are hours of the day rather than dates.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Cum. Total Sales at any hour = that hour's Total Sales plus every hour above it. Straight addition down the column, and the last row equals the total for the whole range.
What sits inside Total Sales. Gross Sales + Shipping + Tax − Discounts − Refunds. Tax and delivery charges are counted, product cost and ad spend are not, so this is neither what lands in your bank nor your margin.
Worked example. The hours to 08:00 total €900. 09:00 adds €260 and 10:00 adds €340, so the 10:00 row reads Total Sales €340 and Cum. Total Sales €1,500. If Cum. Ad Spend on the same row is €300, the day has taken €5 for every €1 it has spent so far.
Over a multi-day range each hour row holds that hour from every day added together, so the curve shows the range's shape by hour — not one day's takings.
It answers the question
How much of the day is already in the till, and by when? A store with half its revenue in before noon runs on a different clock from one that takes it after dinner, and every decision about when to spend depends on knowing which you are.
Why it matters
It turns a total into a timetable. The Total Sales card tells you what a period did; this tells you when it did it, which is the input to when you schedule delivery, when you send campaigns, and when the inbox needs covering.
It also gives the day a checkpoint. The % △ column beside it compares the same hour in the comparison period, so you can see you're behind at 14:00 instead of finding out at midnight.
What good looks like
There's no healthy euro figure — the number is the size of your store at a point in the day. Read the shape instead. Set the curve against Cum. Ad SpendCum. Ad SpendHelps you see how quickly spend is ramping during the day. on the same rows: the hours where revenue climbs faster than spend are the ones paying for the day. Then read each row against the comparison period, which the % △ column already does for you. A curve of the right shape but a lower level is a traffic problem; a curve of a different shape is a timing problem.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Send into the hour that already converts | Time campaigns and flows to land where the curve is steepest rather than at a fixed hour | A steeper climb in the hours you target | 1–2 weeks | It moves orders earlier more often than it adds them. Judge it on the last row of the day, not on the 10:00 one. |
| Fast Start delivery before the curve does | Pull the ad schedule earlier so traffic is arriving as demand begins to build | Revenue starts accumulating sooner | 1 week | Cum. Ad Spend rises in exactly those hours whether the orders follow or not, so watch both curves before keeping the change. |
| Slow Work on the flat part of the day | For hours with traffic and no orders, check what those visitors meet — stock, delivery promise, page speed | A curve that climbs through hours that used to be level | 1 quarter | Slow work, and many flat hours are flat because nobody is awake rather than because anything is broken. Confirm there is traffic first. |
| Slow Lift basket size, not only order count | Aim thresholds and bundles at the hours already doing the volume | The same order curve carrying more money | 1 quarter | Discounting into a bundle raises this line and lowers Contribution Margin. The curve improves and the profit behind it doesn't. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Revenue is orders multiplied by basket size. Which of the two moved decides what you do next, and this curve alone can't tell you.
More customers and more money
Both halves grew together, which is growth rather than a mix change. Check AOV held so you know the extra revenue came from extra people.
Bigger baskets
Fewer orders carrying more money each. Good when it's a product mix shift, less good when a promotion has stopped pulling new buyers in.
Smaller baskets
More people buying less. Usually discounting or a cheap line taking over the mix, and it's the shape that hides a margin problem inside a busy day.
Fewer customers
The day is short of people rather than short of basket size. Look at whether the ads ran and whether the traffic arrived before changing anything on the site.
The revenue curve says how the day is going; the running efficiency figure says what it cost. Revenue ahead of last period with the ratio holding means you grew the day. Revenue ahead with the ratio climbing means you bought it, and the last row is where you find out at what price.
The single-hour column finds the hour that changed; the running total tells you whether the change was worth noticing. A missing €400 hour is most of a quiet morning and almost nothing on a busy evening — only the pair separates the two.
Common misreads
It's every day in the selected range added together by hour. One day's curve needs the range set to one day.
Tax and delivery charges are inside it. Refunds and discounts are already out, but nothing else is — no product cost, no ad spend, no payment fees.
Late hours are usually flat because orders stop, not because the site did. Compare the same hour in the comparison period before going looking for a fault.
Also called
Cumulative Shopify Sales · running revenue · sales to date
See yoursYour revenue curve hour by hour on the Hour tab, beside the spend that bought it.
Open Marketing →